Discovery BoxIsaiah 65:2-5
Context65:2 I spread out my hands all day long
to my rebellious people,
who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable,
and who did what they desired. 1
65:3 These people continually and blatantly offend me 2
as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards 3
and burn incense on brick altars. 4
65:4 They sit among the tombs 5
and keep watch all night long. 6
They eat pork, 7
and broth 8 from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans.
65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!
Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’
These people are like smoke in my nostrils,
like a fire that keeps burning all day long.
[65:2] 1 tn Heb “who walked [in] the way that is not good, after their thoughts.”
[65:3] 2 tn Heb “the people who provoke me to anger to my face continually.”
[65:3] 3 tn Or “gardens” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[65:3] 4 tn Or perhaps, “on tiles.”
[65:4] 5 sn Perhaps the worship of underworld deities or dead spirits is in view.
[65:4] 6 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and in the watches they spend the night.” Some understand נְּצוּרִים (nÿtsurim) as referring to “secret places” or “caves,” while others emend the text to וּבֵין צוּרִים (uven tsurim, “between the rocky cliffs”).
[65:4] 7 tn Heb “the flesh of the pig”; KJV, NAB, NASB “swine’s flesh.”
[65:4] 8 tc The marginal reading (Qere), supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, reads מְרַק (mÿraq, “broth”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has פְרַק (feraq, “fragment”).
